Grant Hill retires after 18-year career

June 01, 2013|Reuters

The Sports Xchange

Grant Hill retires after 18-year career

After an 18-year career that was marked by numerous injuries, seven-time All Star Grant Hill retired on Saturday.

The 6-foot-8 forward averaged 16.7 points in his career after being selected by the Detroit Pistons with the third overall pick in the 1994 draft. As a first-year player out of Duke, Hill shared rookie of the year honors with Jason Kidd.

Hill made the announcement before Saturday's Miami Heat-Indiana Pacers game while on the set of TNT, where he was working as an analyst.

"I've been hinting at it for the last few years," Hill said on TNT. "You get to a point where you just don't want to do it anymore. But I've enjoyed it. I loved it."

Injuries limited the versatile Hill to 1,026 games. He is one of 17 players to compile more than 17,000 points, 6,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists. He played for the Pistons, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns and last season with the Los Angeles Clippers.

"The last four or five years I would take about a month (after the season to decide to continue) and within a month, if I still wanted to do it, I would. Putting it simply, after a month, I just realized I didn't want to play anymore," Hill told USA Today Sports on Saturday. "There's a lot of reasons for that, but you know when you know. It just felt right. I'm excited and looking forward to moving on and doing other things.

"I worked hard. I put a lot into it, and I enjoyed every minute of it. But now is the time to move on. I feel great physically. It's important to go out feeling good, particularly considering all the setbacks I had health-wise throughout my career."

Hill also was part of the U.S. Olympic gold-medal winning team in 1996 and a two-time NCAA champion while at Duke.